The key is preparation and sticking with one manufacturer's system.
Prep is 99% of the work. Scrape/sand off all the loose paint and fill
dents and chips with fairing compound. Sand it all again to about 120
grit. Inspect, fill some more and sand again. Spray or roll on a high
build primer and sand again. This is when it gets fun because you can
see some progress and priner is easier to sand.

Now stop, pop a beer and stare at it for a couple of days searching for
any imperfections. Two part LPU goes on very thin so it shows every
blimish below it. The one part polys are a little thicker but any
unevenness will be magnified in the reflection of the top coat.

One part poly top coat can be sprayed fairly easily but two part LPU
will kill you without proper breathing apparatus. Roll and tip is
probably he best method if you are not experienced with spraying. It
takes two people. One with a roller and the other with a clean DRY
brush. One person rolls on a thin coat and and the other follows
immediately lightly tip off the roller marks with the dry brush and
watching for hollidays and fisheyes. You want to keep a wet edge to
work off of all the time. A third person is helpful for cleaning
brushes and mixing paint. If you are reasonably carefull the result
will be 95% as good as a pro job.

That is just the topsides. I will let someone else talk about bottom
paint 'cause I have not gotten that far yet. :-)

Dan wrote:

Hi

It's time to paint my first boat. It's a 26' GRP yacht and I have no idea
what I need to do to prepare it for painting and antifouling. Can anybody
give me any tips?

I've had quotes from a professional painter and it's going to cost me more
than I payed for the boat.

Thanks in advance
Dan



--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com